2015 Blog Recap x 2016 Goals.

The other day, I was looking through my notes and saw a list of blog changes I wrote over and over on different pages at different points this year.
I wouldn’t exactly say that I had a defined set of blog goals for 2015 but I had a picture of some things I wanted to do with my blog and some changes I wanted to make so I thought to revisit them and see how I did this year and ways I’ll like to improve next year.
I already shared my year in review, so let’s just say I’m doing the same thing but for my blog.

BLOG DESIGN/AESTHETICS.

I really really wanted to change my blog design this year to a more responsive and mobile optimized one. Actually, I’ve been wanting to change it since 2013 but somehow it hasn’t happened yet.
I had someone offer to help me when I mentioned it on twitter and its already in the works so I’m hoping that comes through soon.
I defined my aesthetic a bit more this year and also tried to incorporate a bit of graphic design to my posts but I hope to improve on my graphics, general aesthetics and blog photography next year.

BLOG CONTENT.

You might have noticed that I had less outfit posts compared to previous years – it was a bit deliberate.

I moved from majorly outfit posts and blogged more lifestyle posts but I tried to maintain a healthy balance between it all.
I also blogged more about blogging, its something I have an idea about and I decided to at least share my expertise for people who might need help.
I didn’t get to do the video I had planned and I really pray I find someone to help me with it next year.

I featured some guest bloggers and introduced some new categories this year – Lagos Living, Reader Spotlight, Weekend Bits, Candid Talk and Celebrating Creativity.

I definitely love the direction my content took this year and I hope you guys did too?
I’ll try to work on better content, fresh segments and more guest posts as I truly enjoyed having people over.
Which of the categories did you enjoy the most or would like to see more next year?

FEATURES & COLLABORATIONS.

I had quite a number of features on various blogs/sites which I’m really thankful for but one thing I actually wanted to do this year was get featured on some big sites either by writing for them, they featuring me or just doing a sort of creative collaboration that will get featured there. I eventually got featured on Bella Naija, TheStyleHQ (this one came as an awesome surprise!) and Stylevitae (even though I got featured as a model)
I added an ‘in the press page‘ and you can view them over there, although its incomplete as I can’t really remember some places I’ve been featured so if you know, please help me!

On the collaboration end, I set out to collaborate with other bloggers this year but I ended up collaborating with just Akin here and also did a video with Deola of omogemura here.

I hope to do more collaborations next year though and this time around I’m aiming higher! So I’m looking to get featured on international sites.

SOCIAL & STATS.

I was hoping to triple last year’s views but I’m not quite there yet. I’m not sure if you guys stopped reading my posts or … Lol
Towards the end of this year, I tried to focus less on my pageviews (mostly because focusing on numbers was causing me heart break. Lool) and more on creating good content and reader engagement. I’m going to try doing that next year too.
I got a mailchimp account and started to grow my mail list. I have over a hundred and fifty subscribers, thank you all so much for the love! ( You can join the party here). Even though my mailchimp was giving me troubles which I still haven’t figured out how to fix till now, I decided not to let that slow me down and I started sending out post updates manually. Not the best but at least I’m getting work done, hopefully I fix it next year or find a way around my mailing list problems.

My Instagram grew a LOT this year! I was shocked myself ( You can find me @cassiedaves), I didn’t promote my facebook page nearly enough (please like my page here) or use my pinterest as I set out to. I’ll try to utilize my Pinterest more this year.

BRANDING/PARTNERSHIPS.

I learnt quite a number of things on branding and presenting my blog as a brand (which it infact is).
I wrote a blog manifesto, put together a media kit/Rates sheet and treated my blog with more professionalism.
I worked with more brands also and you can view that here.
I definitely need to work on replying emails faster next year though

So that’s it! My 2015 blog recap and some more improvements/changes for 2016

What goals did you set for your blog this year/How did you do with that?
What goals/ways are you hoping to improve your blog in the new year?

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Author: Cassie Daves

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